A Star for Mrs. Blake

An emotionally charged, brilliantly realized novel set in the 1930s about five American women — Gold Star Mothers — who travel to France to visit the graves of their World War I soldier sons: a pilgrimage that will change their lives in unforeseeable and indelible ways.

The women meet for the first time just before their journey begins: Katie, an Irish maid from Dorchester, Massachusetts; Minnie, wife of an immigrant Russian Jewish chicken farmer; Bobbie, a wealthy Boston socialite; Wilhelmina, a former tennis star in precarious mental health; and Cora Blake, a single mother and librarian from coastal Maine.

In Paris, Cora meets a journalist whose drug habit helps him hide from his own wartime fate — facial wounds so grievous he’s forced to wear a metal mask. This man will change Cora’s life in wholly unexpected ways. And when the women finally travel to Verdun to visit the battlegrounds where their sons fought as well as the cemeteries where they are buried, shocking events — a death, a scandal, a secret revealed — will guarantee that Cora’s life and those of her traveling companions will become inextricably intertwined. Only now will they be able to emerge from their grief and return home to their loved ones. This is a timeless story set against a footnote of history: little known but unforgettable.

“A Star for Mrs. Blake is a beautifully written, meticulously researched slice of American history. April Smith’s poignant and tender story of five courageous World War I Gold Star mothers’ amazing journey across the sea is one you will never forget.” — Fannie Flagg

“A Star For Mrs. Blake is a beautiful and unforgettable novel about five Gold Star Mothers whose stories are both personal and universal . . . a labor of love that shows on every page. Everyone who has served or is serving in the military, and also their families and friends, should read this book.” — Nelson DeMille